The Toronto Zoo has lost its accreditation from an international zoo association over the city’s plans to send three elephants to a sanctuary in California.

The Toronto Zoo's three remaining elephants will be shipped to a sanctuary in California.

By:Donovan VincentStaff Reporter, Published on Wed Apr 18 2012

The Toronto Zoo has lost its accreditation from an international zoo association over the city’s plans to send three elephants to a sanctuary in California.

The American-based Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits most major zoos in North America, sent a letter to the Toronto Zoo last week announcing the decision, effective immediately.

The zoo, accredited by the AZA since 1977, won’t be able to re-apply for certification — considered the gold seal for top zoos — until March 2013.

The move comes after city council voted last year, over the objections of their handlers, to send the zoo’s three aging elephants to a non-AZA-accredited sanctuary in California called PAWS.

Before council’s decision, the zoo’s board of management had voted to have its zoo staff find a new home for the aging elephants by first searching for a suitable AZA-accredited zoo. But staff failed — at least in council’s opinion — to do so quickly enough.

The AZA says the council vote contravened the association’s governance rules. The rules state, among other things, that “while the governing authority (city council) may have input, the decisions regarding the animal collection must be made by the professionals who are specifically trained to handle the institution’s animal collection.”

In the end the zoo board voted to abide by city council’s will, and the three elephants are expected to be sent to the PAWS sanctuary within the next month or so.

AZA-accredited zoos have breeding agreements and species survival plans that involve loaning animals between facilities for conservation reasons.

But Toronto Zoo CEO John Tracogna said he expects the AZA’s decision to have a “minimal’’ impact on the zoo’s breeding programs, and he doesn’t expect other AZA zoos to break their loan agreements with Toronto over the issue.

The decision won’t affect next year’s arrival of giant pandas from China, either, he said, because the AZA had no decision-making role in the visit.

The accreditation decision shows what happens “when you do policy on the fly,’’ Mayor Rob Ford said Wednesday.

“You should leave it in the staff’s hands. Hopefully it won’t hurt us,” he said, adding “council sometimes thinks they know better, and this is a perfect example of when they don’t know better.’’

Ford, who was “absent’’ during the council vote last year, said it’s too late to halt the relocation to PAWS.

Councillor Michelle Berardinetti, who tabled the motion at council calling for the move to PAWS, said Wednesday: “The reality is what we’re seeing here is the bully (the AZA) that’s trying to tell us what to do, and tell the taxpayers and residents of Toronto what to do, with our elephants.

“The other issue is why are they doing it right now? They just happen to be doing it when we’re getting ready to move the elephants,” she added.

But Grant Ankenman, president of CUPE 1600, which represents the zoo’s animal keepers, said in a statement Thursday that “the loss of our AZA accreditation puts the Toronto Zoo in a very precarious position.”

He later added: “Despite what the mayor and zoo administration say, moving animals to PAWS, where there is (tuberculosis), and losing our accreditation is not final; we can change things.”

With files from David Rider and Paul Moloney

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